Page 13 of Wrong Number, Right Soldier
And this:‘Call me if you can, or just meet me at the gate – if you show your ID at the ticket counter they’ll give you a pass for security. I’m coming to you, sweetheart.’
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Saylis
“Holy shit, Say. He’s comingnow?”
“Like really soon. Oh my god, it’s happening. What should I do, what should I say—what should Iwear?”
“Nothing, honey.”
“Er, Kim. I don’t think I’ll be allowed in the airport innothing.”
She makes a face. “Nothingspecial, I mean. Remember how you looked when you first FaceTimed him?”
“Eek, please don’t remind me.”
“And he wasenamoredwith you!”
“Brain damage. It’s the only logical explanation.” To be honest, he’s seen me in even worse states since that first call. I can’t always be camera-ready; I can just always beready.
I settle on a simple fitted top and loose jeans. Comfortable but cute. Not trying too hard. Notnottrying. It’s fine. I’m fine. I’m just headed to the airport.
I’m headed to the airport!
There’s this sense of time and distance expanding and collapsing, over and over again. Is this how it is? I couldn’t talk to him for several days while he was coming home. Aside from the impromptu mission he’d gone on—which I now realize may not have beenimpromptuat all, he just couldn’t mention it—we never wentdayswithout talking, texting, or FaceTiming, not since that first night-slash-very-early morning.
I hated the no-contact periods: those two weeks, and then this past week. I never knew how ferociously you could miss avoice. Like an insomniac misses sleep. Like a starved, wild animal misses a full belly. Like a dying person misses life.
Oh my god, I really aminsane.
After I check in at the ticketing counter, I’m permitted through the security line and all the way to his gate, like he said. I wait and wait until I see his plane. It taxisso fucking slowlyup to the gate I could explode from my body.
Finally, the door to the jet bridge opens.
And then all of a sudden, he is more than a voice, more than a face on a screen. He is tall and brawn and masculine-scented and here,right here, in full Army uniform dropping his bags onto the floor and wrapping me up into his warm, solid body.
“My girl,” is all he says, before his mouth falls down onto mine.
Our first kiss is an explosion of sensation against my lips and tongue. Our rhythm has no manners, zero regard for onlookers. It’s messy and hungry at first, the savagery of our desperation on full display, until we finally justsink. I meet him where he meets me, something new that we create,ours. My heart goes so berserk in my chest I’m certain he can feel it. Without effort he lifts me higher against him, so my neck doesn’t have to crane so far back, effectively raising my feet off the floor.
Onlookers respond with a collective sigh.
As if he can’t even hear them, his hands start to roam, and a low groan unfurls into my mouth. My body responds instantly with tingles and greed.
“Get a room!” I hear someone call out.
Can we, please?
“Oh let them be, they are young and in love!”
And seriously thinking about that room.
Trey sets me on my feet, slowly slowing everything down. He pulls back to look at me, touching my hair, my face, his pupils blown wide in his midnight eyes. And I could swear I can see what’s on his mind in those eyes.
Me too, babe. I have definitely thought of himlike that. Oh so many times. But if I had known what he actually felt like, tasted like, my fantasies would have been wildly more colorful and intense. Now my body is screaming at me. Get more of that,now!
“You’re here.” I smile up at him, utterly drunk on the delicious feeling that he’s actually…here. This feels like the most real moment I’ve ever had in my life, and a dream, all at once.
